Lemon Butter Chicken
by Chungah
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Easy crisp-tender chicken with the creamiest lemon butter sauce ever – you’ll want to forget the chicken and drink the sauce instead!
Happy New Year! I know I should really be sharing some sort of salad or quinoa recipe with the start of the year but you know me and my chicken thigh obsession. I just can’t get enough, especially when a lemon butter cream sauce is involved.
And if you’re in the need of some clean greens for the new year diet, well, this dish has plenty of baby spinach. Good enough, right?
Plus, these chicken thighs carry quite a bit of punch with that fresh, zingy lemon flavor and that smoky goodness from the paprika. And this cream sauce is absolutely heavenly. Just be sure to have a spoon ready because you’ll want to sip on it straight from the pan!
Lemon Butter Chicken
Video
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 cups baby spinach, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Season chicken thighs with paprika, salt and pepper, to taste.
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Working in batches, add chicken, skin-side down, and sear both sides until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side; set aside.
- Melt remaining tablespoon butter in the Dutch oven. Add garlic, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, heavy cream, Parmesan, lemon juice and thyme.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat, stir in spinach, and simmer until the spinach has wilted and the sauce has slightly thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Return chicken to the Dutch oven.
- Place into oven and roast until completely cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, about 25-30 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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Easy to prepare and so flavorful. Pardon my ignorance, but do you cover the skillet before putting it in the oven?
Nope, no cover needed!
I used boneless skinless chicken thighs but the part of the chicken that wasn’t in the sauce (the top part) dried out. I cooked at 400 for 27 minutes. Did I do something wrong?
I’m not entirely sure – perhaps your oven wasn’t hot enough? I recommend investing in an in-oven thermometer for reliable, consistent results. You can read more about it here.
Cooking time in recipes is also an estimation – you may need to extend or reduce cooking time as needed depending on the size of your chicken thighs. Hope that helps!
This is a wonderful dish. I prepared it the first time with some green chilies and the second time with two tablespoons of Chipotle. Both were a hit and made the dish more South West. Served with a few pine nuts added even another twist.
This recipe was okay, but I’ll try it without the skin next time. All the seasoning was on the skin that I don’t eat.
Christy, if you do not consume the skin on the chicken thighs, it is best to use skinless chicken thighs.
I made this tonight and my family LOVED it – my 9 yr old asked if we could have it every night! I was unsure about the lemon, but it is light and not overwhelming. The sauce was so good, and I used chicken tenders so it cooked in about 15 minutes. Delish – will be making this again for sure!
Hi I made this tonight and the sauce was very runny and thin. Should the sauce have a thicker consistency? I think I might have done something wrong…
I’m not entirely sure what kind of consistency you were expecting but this sauce is not as thick as something like gravy – it’s meant to have more of a creamy texture to it.
this recipe was AMAZING!! My husband, boys and parents loved it. I made soup with my leftovers and it was equally amazing. I don’t really ever comment but had to shrare, this is a keeper!!
Made this for dinner tonight. Cut the recipe in half and used chicken breasts as that’s what I had on hand. Also added some sliced mushrooms that I needed to use up. Great recipe for people watching carbs! It was delish! I will definitely make this again!
Looks amazing!! Has anyone tried this with coconut cream? Dairy doesn’t go well with this family…
Ok I have never made a sauce like this for chicken ever and without even tasting it, I can say it tastes YUMM!! I am soon going to be making it!! Gorgeous pics as always!!
Thanks so much for this recipe, it was delicious! I did trade out 1/2 cup of broth for white wine and used olive oil and butter, along with 1/2&1/2 for heavy cream. It curdled when adding spinach but out of the oven was perfect! My fussy eaters gave a thumbs up!
I served it with Trader Joes garlic basil noodles. Yummy.
Made this tonight – fantastic over quinoa (for me) and rice (for the rest)! I only used half the lemon juice at the start of the braise and squeezed the other half over it just before plating. Great combo of flavors and so easy to make!
WOW! Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and I kinda have a thing =) Super excited to try this out!
I just made this AWESOME dish for my family the other night and it was a hit. This recipe is definitely a keeper. It is so easy to do and I didn’t have to change a thing (except triple the recipe because I have a large family)! With a big household it is often difficult to please everybody’s tastebuds with one dish. My brother is not a fan of lemon chicken of any kind and his actually liked this! I was also excited when my chicken came out just like the pictures. Thank you for sharing!
JS – Your comment “The Lemon Butter Chicken recipe popped up on my Zite app today, and I made it tonight. I had the same thing happen to me, and I also made it the same night. Thanks Chungah, will be using more of your recipes.
5 star. My only change would be to thicken the sauce a little (cornstarch) and maybe do a whole chicken (cooking it longer) instead of just dark meat (not a fan, I just prefer white). The sauce was awesome and would be great on fish/shrimp – everyone in the family LOVED it – my daughter even made me save the leftover sauce (yes there was some left because I only cooked 5 thighs) so she could use it for something else – what I dont know yet 🙂 Thanks for an easy keeper!!!!!
YUMMY. Made this recipe exactly as written and it came out perfectly. Great flavor and the house smelled so good. Will make again. Thanks and Happy New Year!
Drink the sauce, dunk bread in the sauce, eat the chicken with the sauce…it all sounds amazing! I have got to try this.
I had the same problem,when I added the lemon it curdled,threw it out and started again with out so much lemon and it kind of worked. What am I missing?
Jim, the only problem I can think of is that the heat source was set too high. The amount of lemon juice shouldn’t be the sauce of it to curdle/separate.
Gosh this woman can cook and post her recipes as well.
I am a retired widower and do most of my cooking in a countertop oven. I scaled down the ingredients and made a 1/2 recipe but I didn’t make any changes to it. I made some rice on the side to go with it.
This is a “restaurant quality” dish. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Lemon Butter Chicken recipe popped up on my Zite app today, and I made it tonight. My family LOVED it! We were fighting to have the last bit of the sauce… so delicious!! This recipe’s a keeper. I’ll be making it, again, and I might even try it with fish, next time. Thanks!!
If you make fish make a yummie flavoured rice to go..boil normal medium grain rice until cooked….take a pan and fry chopped onions, garlic and a grated carrot (2 for larger portions) and chopped green pepper fry all together with plenty butter (secret again is the butter) once nicely cooked (peppers soft) stir rice in with mixture now keep stirring to mix rice and you will notice rice turns yellow because of carrot. Once all mixed nicely serve with your fish and a lemon butter sauce (I just melt butter and add lemon to taste) and pour sauce over rice and fish. It is delicious.